Social Strategies for 2014: How Top Brands Manage, Measure and Budget for SuccessAs social media continues to grow, attracting larger and larger audiences worldwide, marketers are working to figure out how to use the medium to best advantage. Companies are embracing the social marketing revolution for the benefits it offers: brand engagement, 24/7 access to consumer sentiment and the ability to push content to loyal customers and drive sales, among others. Ad Age

Start preparing your social media attack for 2014 now

Darin's note:This information is based upon a brand new white paper that Ad Age put out for free access if you are willing to register with them (also free). The white paper contains all the background data and research that the following conclusions are based upon. If you'd like the white paper, click on the title above the quote or on the image.

Minesthe big data behind social media in 2013 in order to make predications for marketing and branding in 2014, using Ad Age's access to powerful data and research tools.Notesthat, after reviewing all the data closely, strategies for next year begin to emerge. The conclusions in forecasting the new year are:

Marketers must ramp up their social media strategies to be competitive, and they need the newest technologies to efficiently govern and pull data from complex campaigns that use multiple social networks and involve more than one department in the organization.

Social media now represents one of the cores of a brands' marketing strategy, no longer a side note or auxiliary resource.

In order to be competitive in the marketplace, organizations must expand staffing and management for social media, as the needs will be larger in the coming year.

Many companies should consider getting outside help with this to maintain a competitive edge. Social media is no longer a part-time enterprise, but a 24/7 full-time occupation. You will see social media marketing departments and outsourcing increase tremendously in 2014.

Marketers need to adapt, utilizing new technology to get beyond the surface "likes" and "follows" to gain more data to empower their marketing. The technology needs to dig deeper into what's happening in a company's social media.

In this sense, many company's will be playing catch up in 2014 if they do not fully prepare immediately.

Interested?Click the title or image to read on.Sourceis AdAge.comYou might also enjoy:

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By Darin L. Hammond Darin works for BlogCatalog, owns and writes at ZipMinis.com, and freelances as a writer and designer. Darin Publishes across the web on sites like Technorati, BC Blog, Blog Critics, Broowaha, Demand Media Studios, SteamFeed, LifeHack, and Social Media Today.Find Darin on Google+. e

7 Marketing Trends You Should Not Ignore Marketing has been democratised. The capability to use marketing tools and technology without having to beg or pay for attention is unprecedented. It’s a time where you can now build your own crowd to market and sell to without paying the mass media gate keepers. Jeff Bullas

Changing technology evolves marketing.

Minesthe changes and trends that social media and technology force upon marketing, with company's having to adapt to survive.Notesthat such changes in marketing have never been so monumental because the revolution is on multiple fronts: software, hardware platforms multimedia and multi-networks. Marketing adapts as quickly as the technology, and the most successful stay ahead of the curve.

Among the most significant current trends are:

The heightened role of content marketing. Content marketing is vast, moving a brand across blogs, social media, and other venues. This kind of marketing is most effective, but it is also labor and intensive.

The shifting of platforms to mobile marketing. The overwhelming increase in use of smart phones and tablets has forced marketers to adapt to distributing content on small as well as large screens. Many websites are reporting rapid increases in mobile traffic up to 30 -40%.

The integration of all forms of digital marketing. Both content and social media are supremely important, and to be effective they need to be integrated company wide rather than housed in the marketing department.

Scaling marketing through social media. Maintaining a social presence is complex and many are using marketing professionals to help them navigate and optimize. The ideal is to have one tool to handle the complexities including integration.

Marketing continuously through social media and content. Google recognizes and approves of frequent activity and publication. If you are not found continuously, more than likely you won't be found at all.

Personalized marketing approaches as opposed to mass messages of old. Sites are becoming more savvy at using big data to tailor messages for individual consumers. This trend will grow quickly as big data analysis becomes faster and easier.

Visual marketing in the form of photos, videos, slideshows, and infographics. Not only is visual marketing expanding but is diversifying. Pinterest, Vine, and Instagram are among the disruptive visual technology employed in marketing, cutting into the Youtube market.

Interested?Click the title or image to read on.Sourceis JeffBullas.comYou might also enjoy:

Minesthe nature of entrepreneurialism, marketing, and social media, basing his discussion on his bachelor's degree in psychology and philosophy, with no grad school. He emphasizes the fact that grad school isn't necessary for everyone.Notesthat he has been CEO three times and like all tenacious entrepreneur's has had successes and failures. The secret is to learn and adapt quickly, trying never to make the same mistake twice, and the #1 rule is to have fun with what you are doing.

If your approach to social media is to advertise and broadcast, your approach will fail because your prospects today are looking to engage, interact, and learn to trust. Overt marketing will be ignored as suspect.

Potential clients want to have back and forth conversations and relationships. If you don't engage them in conversation, they will find it in your competitors. The connections you make with clients will bring a sale once a relationship of trust has been established.

Social media is fragmenting, and consumers are following. More often than not, potential clients are on one or more of the big 4 platforms, but probably on Pinterest, Friendster, or Pinterest as well.

On these multiple platforms, customers should find you talking, teaching, showing, adding value, and demonstrating that there is a real person behind the helm. With this goal in mind, essential to your success will be:

Pinpoint your corporate values and ethics, and align your social media work with them. A mission statement is essential.

Practice open, transparent leadership throughout your whole organization or social will not function.

Be sure to line up numbers one and two with your overarching corporate strategy and plan.

Tone down social media in the marketing department, and make the shift to integration throughout all the departments in the company.

Pick up a Chief Social Strategist to work with all departments, striving to make this integration work. The value is worth the cost.

Do not forget blogging. Blogs are one of your most powerful social media tools. Who are you writing to in your blog? It should be your target audience, with their specific needs and wants in mind. If not, you are attracting people, but not clients.

Interested? Click the title or image to read on.Source is SwitchandShift.com

Is Social Media Creating a Lonely Planet?I’d actually like to take a moment to examine why people are congregating to great extent in these digital villages and whether or not doing so contributes to online isolation or solace.Brian Solis

Updating through social media helps the lonely.

WUT3KPW39P3GMines the recent psychology research that explores the impact of social media posting on intimacy and loneliness.Notes that when individuals enter social networks they enter an "egosystem," or an electronic community and world, largely of their own design.

Several peer reviewed studies verify that merely posting updates (Facebook the primary focus) immediately eased feelings of loneliness and isolation, finding that whether others commented on the updates irrelevant. The social posting generated the psychological illusion of being physically connected, independent of feedback from the community.

Whether the new social equals the effect of physical connectedness is unlikely, but the studies focused only on the results of electronic sharing. Further extensive research will likely shed light on the differences between the two.

Interested? Click the title or image to read on.Source is LinkedIn.com.You might also enjoy:

To Post or Not to PostThere are 900 million social media users plugged into Facebook alone, and nearly 500 million of them log into the social network every single day.

Mines the temptations we experience in sharing too much across our social networks, the wrong kind of information.Notes that "forward-thinking" is required in planning the trajectory of one's career and life, remembering always the potential for prospective clients, colleagues, and employers to encounter your posts in the present or future.Interested? Click the title to see the link to the infographic that follows. If the Infographic is not imediately below, click "Read More."Source is OnlineClasses.org.You might also enjoy:

Mines the top companies based on the criteria of career advancement opportunities, providing a unique perspective from surveys of the employees themselves, making the information useful for those looking to establish a career with a future.Notes that the top 5 companies in order are Worldwide Express, Bain & Company, Facebook, Booz & Company, and Boston Consulting Group Associate. The information has been collected by GlassDoor, and they provide more extensive information on each of the 25 companies their website.Interested? Click the text or image to read on.Source is GlassDoor.

Mines the stupid things that we sometimes say online when someone important might be watching, not foreseeing potential ramifications as employers are using social media more to evaluate employees.Notes that among the ones that will get you fired are talking about getting drunk, complaining about having a hangover, discussing bad things you've done in the past, bringing up your sex life, or mentioning plans for revenge. Interested? Click the article text or image above to follow the link.Share this mini with your friends using the icons below.

Mines the increasing value of Google+ in the face of longstanding and well established competitors and how to maximize the resource.Notes the most important uses of Google+ for business, emphasizing that this is direction the future is heading, using videos and graphics to illustrate the power of the social communities and Google itself.Interested? Click the article text or image above to follow the link.Share this mini with your friends using the floating "Add It" bar to the left or tweet it below. Please support our advertisers as well.Source is JeffBullas.com.